Gordon-Powell finds success after switch to 800m

There’s a new name in the upper reaches of the all-time Jamaica 800 metres performance list but it’s a familiar one. Chrisann Gordon-Powell, the 2017 NCAA 400m champion, has made the move to the two-lap event. Injuries and a belief there is a place for Jamaica in the 800m have led her to a new personal best of one minute 59.52 seconds.

That time came in her fifth 800m race of the season in Nashville on June 5 and makes her the fifth fastest Jamaican woman of all time. Speaking two days later, she explained the move. “Over the years I’ve been doing the 400m and I would get hurt a lot when it comes to speed but with 800m, it requires less speed so I feel more comfortable and I feel like I won’t get hurt that much, so I think that the 800m is a good fit for me,” she said.

One such injury stopped her at the 2019 National Senior Championships when she was one of the favourites to make the team to the World Championships.

Gifted with a 400m best of 50.13 seconds, the 27-year-old says training is very different now. “You have to be more committed to the 800m than the 400m. With the 800m, you must have everything, strength and speed endurance, strength endurance, speed endurance, you’ve got to have everything for the 800m because it’s like a long sprint but at the same time you’ve got to be strong,” Gordon-Powell detailed.

“I might be better each year because you know I just started and I still believe that there is more room for improvement,” she reasoned.

“It shows that you can do whatever you put your mind to do. Impossible is possible. It’s a great feeling and, you know, not a lot of Jamaicans you know are doing the 800m but I believe that there’s a place for us (Jamaica) in the 800m,” she added.

The former Holmwood Technical High School star is, however, sad to leave the 400m.

“I knew it would be a challenge but I honestly knew I could do this years ago but I love the 400m so much. You know, it’s hard for me to give up my 400m”, she confessed, “but I just feel more comfortable in the longer event right now.”

Her Nashville win left her just 0.02 hundredths of a second from the World Championship qualifying standard of one minute 59.50 seconds but she will go for it on Sunday at the New York Grand Prix.

In Nashville, she did the first lap in 58 seconds flat and finished with a 61.5 seconds closer. With that in mind, she offered: “I feel I am still learning how to run the 800m right now, still trying to come up with the best strategy, still working on that, I think I’m not there yet but I am on my way.”